In 1787, three Minoan ships are making their way along the Great Lakes toward the Atlantic. During a severe storm, one of the ships sinks, taking down its crew and a load of copper ore. Jumping to present day, a motor cruiser is found stranded along the shore with eight bodies. This is just one of a number of mysterious happenings where people and boats disappear without trace. Jack Handler, a former Chicago homicide cop, gets involved when a car gets blown up before his eyes, with the cruiser captain’s wife in it. I stopped reading at Chapter 31.
From the first page, I found ‘Superior Peril’ hard going, sprinkled as it was with a profusion of ellipses, which only acted as stumbling stones. The first chapter—two pages—could have been left out entirely. When Michael Carrier introduced Minoan ships into the story, stating that they were mining almost pure copper in the Great Lakes since 2,500 BC, I had to blink. The Minoan civilization traded actively with Egypt up to1,600 BC, but there is no evidence that they visited the Americas. Copper could have been sourced in Europe without having to go across the Atlantic. How did they know there was copper in the Great Lakes anyway, and wouldn’t they establish colonies after having come this far? Michael Carrier made a mistake introducing the Minoans into the story, then devoting them only a few pages.
Even accepting the premise of Minoans in the Americans, Michael Carrier’s usage of modern day names and sprinkling current day events when talking about them, destroyed the atmosphere of those scenes. Surely the Minoans would have had names of their own for the places they visited. Chapter 4 is a synopsis, and could have been dispensed with as it did not contribute anything to the story. It is a pity the storm scene where the Minoan ship sank wasn’t treated with greater detail, enabling the reader to get into their story.
Although Jack Handler is supposed to be the main character in this book, it is not until Chapter 11 that I learned who he is, Far too long to leave the reader scratching his head. The characters are two-dimensional, nothing for the reader to connect with. Michael Carrier’s disconcerting habit of creating single page chapters makes it difficult to follow what is going on. Ch 8 is two short paragraphs, and Ch 13 is one paragraph and a sentence. After 89 pages, the only thing I learned is that boats and people disappeared in Lake Superior, and Jack is getting involved solving the mystery of the stranded cruiser. Not really understanding what was going on, and unable to connect with this book, I gave up the effort.
A very disappointing book.
